Monday, August 25, 2008

So my computer crashed hard the other day. I had hoped that I would get the chance to choose my time to purchase another computer but life has a way of inserting its own timeline.

I went to best buy online and found the computer that I wanted and called up the local store. They didn't have it. But I needed a computer right away and I knew they had a price match guarantee. So I went and purchased an HP. It's nice and I love how much faster it is than my old box.

On Sunday, I looked in the circulars and found that not only Circuit City but Staples both had the same computer package on sale for less after rebate. So today I hopped in my car with the circulars and my receipt in hand and went to the best buy store. Turns out that they don't honor prices that are lower after rebate. They would rather have me return the equipment and purchase it somewhere else and lose me as a customer than honor a rebate offer from another store.

Well, it worked. They've lost me as a customer. I hope they lose you, too. At the very least, make sure you check out Circuit City's prices before you buy. Yeah the rebate forms a pain but some of them are quite large.

tcahf

UPDATE 9/20/08The computer went on sale the next week at Best Buy but with a different more hi-end printer. I went back and asked for a refund. They said that they couldn't do it because it had a different printer. I asked for the manager and asked if I could bring in the other printer and swap it out for the new printer and get the refund. Yes, sort of, but they didn't have the new printer in stock.

What ended up happening is that over the course of the next week I brought in the old printer which I had never opened. They returned the entire package, I bought the new package with the new printer and gave me $60 back.

Still seems a rather cumbersome process and I'm not absolutely certain I'll shop at best buy certainly not without checking other places first. But I did get a cheaper computer, which I really like. It's not quad core but it is so much faster than my old one.